Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Hey guys! I'm squeezing this in inbetween all the cooking and prepping for Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is my superbowl of holiday cooking and I love it! I finally took a few minutes yesterday to take off my previous mani which was looking a hot mess after 5 days...ugh! I put on Loaded Lacquer "Coconut" which is a white jelly very similar to the nude one I wore last week! You can see the look I created with it here! Last night after all the kids were in bed I added a little sparkle with some straight nail vinyls from Glam my Mani and Pipe Dream Polish "Cha-Ching!" I am totally in love with this! I wasn't really intending for this to be my Thanksgiving mani but a) I didn't want to wait any longer to use these and b) I am loving them so I don't care if they aren't Thanksgiving-y!

I didn't get a chance to get any sun pics of the gold version but I did today...scroll to the end for those! Enough blabbing here are a crap ton of pics! I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving :)

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Hey guys! Today I have a mani I did months ago for Nail It Mag! They ask for submissions months ahead of time so you find yourselves doing holiday manis in the summer! Crazy! One of the prompts was for "winter" so I new I wanted to redo my most-pinned mani from last year (it's getting close to 1,000 pins! That's a lot for little ol me!) And what do you know this is the one of mine they selected to be in the December issue!

I didn't take any pictures or video when I did this but I am thinking of making a video tutorial for them, let me know if yall want to see one!

This is last years version (2013). Not too completely terrible?? My nail shape and picture taking have improved dramatically so that makes for a huge difference in pics. I used almost all the same polishes though!

Monday, November 24, 2014

Hey guys! This will be a short little blog..... I did a little experiment about a month ago with the Zoya Matte Velvets (which I'm still obsessed with!) I've been hearing that people are hesitant about matte polish because it doesn't wear well/chips easily. I have such an enormous love for these particular polishes, not only for their quick dry time and amazing colors (although whyyyyyy isn't there a blueeeee) and I just want to keep on blabbing about them!

I didn't take a picture of them when I first did them....what is wrong with me, haha! But this was sometime in the first 24 hours I had it on so that's gonna count. I wore a simple mani of Harlow (matte) with accent of Arabella (textured pixiedust) and took pics at the end of each day!

note: I did wear a ridge filling basecoat with these. Zoya says to not wear a basecoat or topcoat with the Matte Velvets, buuuuttttt I did anyway. I do think basecoat helps extend the wear time.

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So nothing special about these pics, except the wear is remarkable considering how rough on my hands I am!

end of day 2

end of day 3

Amazing right! I got 4 full days out of this before I took it off. Some of the naysayers might remember getting pictures sent to them repeatedly proving my case ;)

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Hey guys! Happy Saturday! What is everyone up to? I am starting my Thanksgiving grocery list! For the past several years I make a huge traditional meal and I love it! It's a ton of work but it's worth it! And the Mr. lives for the leftover turkey hoagie. LIVES I tell you. Haha! What is your fav leftover! I don't usually mix them up in weird ways, I will just make another plate of all the same things!

These aren't very Thanksgiving-y but that's ok! These are another collab that I did last week...my friend Danele of Low Country Lacquer just passed her one year mark on Instagram so my fellow Glitter Gals and I decided to sneakily recreate HER recreation of her first mani! So fun! I didn't have the Essie she used so I reached for the closest thing I have...and one of my FAV polishes I have across all brands, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook. I am lucky this in the core line as of right now, if it ever gets discontinued I will be frantically hoarding them!

And then there's one other thing....Guys. I am not a person who edits her pics. Like, at all. I try to not mess with them if I don't have to. But this polish is such a pretty color and when I was looking at my pics I was noticing that it looked way more blue and less turquoise. BOO! So I figured out how to color correct a little to show how it looks in real life. BUT I wanted to show both versions!

This is the corrected version and how it looks in real life. You have to be really careful about color correcting because your skin gets weird fast!

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This is SOTC (straight out of the camera). It look much more light blue.

Again, below is right out of the camera,

and this is corrected to true color.

By the way, on my ring finger is Essie Beyond Cozy and on my thumbs is OPI Tiffany Case! The snowflake is done with a silver striper by Kiss and I added a single glitter in the middle from OPI I Snow You Love Me, my fav or a rhinestone look but FLAT!

Friday, November 21, 2014

And it is Friday, how about that! haha! Today I have an awesome "x" design ( yes, I am preeety sure that's the technical term for this mani) with some of my favorite OPI's! I can't take any credit for this one, though. My good friend Gianna of Nailstorming.com came up with this for our little collab today! I'll try to keep this short and sweet for today-no rambling haha!

The bottle shown in the pic above is OPI Thank Glogg it's Friday, one of the polishes in their fall Nordic collection. I only have a few so farrrrrrr but they are awesome! Yall know I'm a sucker for a beautiful maroon (ok, it's not totally maroon but enough for me) . Other polishes I used are:

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Howdy! Today I just have a few quick swatches. When we had our Tn meetup last month I purchased a buttload of polishes from April of Pipe Dream Polish! I've been so busy I've barely gotten to wear them. I wanted to test a few of them out when I had a moment last week!

This is Rhythm and Blues, a blue jelly packed with blue glitter. Blue. I love it. Blue.

(this is 2 coats plus topcoat)

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Rhythm and Blues

This is #mcinspiration, made in collaboration with Amy @mcpolish. It's a gray jelly with pink and black glitters, all things Amy loves! This is super opaque for a jelly, I only needed 2 coats plus topcoat! Yippee!

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Hey guys! Ok sooooooo I'm venturing into the world of indie polishes...which honestly is not something I ever thought I would do! And boyyyyy is it a slippery slope! Now I want them all! So be prepared to be seeing a lot more of these!

The base I used is Loaded Lacquer "No Shirt" which a nude super opaque jelly. It was gifted to me by a friend and I'm completely obsessed. It's part of a set of 3 called the "Nude Jiggles" and once I have them all I will do a separate blog on them!

The gold is another of my new Pipe Dream Polishes called "Champagne Kisses". This is currently my favorite gold polish! I have another post coming up soon about more fun I had with it!

I use nail vinyls for the chevrons and stripes and free handed the dots and cross. And then I took a bunch of pictures the end.

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(this is the base color)

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I wore this for several days and took a bunch of pics of all my matching sparkly things. I told you! OBSESSED.

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They also matched my beloved new phone and case (heart eyes!) I took this pic with the iPad we have which needless to say has a crap camera BUT SPARKLES.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Hey guys! Here's a mani I did last week for this go-around of submissions for Nail It! Mag, these are for a "Foil" prompt for the March issue!

I've never used foil before so I had no idea what I was doing, haha! But they turned out ok?

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The foil I have is like one small sheet crumpled up in a little round tin. I just used my scissors and tweezers to break off little bits of it and lay down on my polish while still tacky. There are lots of other ways to use the foil, most more exciting than this! But I love the combo of blue/gold.

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I have no idea if these will get chosen or not, usually I don't post my submission mani's until the mag comes out but I wanted to share these now! Do yall have any tips to make using foils any easier? Because I was pretty much like a cat with scotch tape stuck to its paw. Take a minute for that visual. :)

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Hey Guys! I feel like its been forever since I've had a fresh post! I've still just been super busy around here and sick to boot. Hopefully I will be able to get caught up now that I have some energy back!

This is a super long post so I'll try not to blab too much! (I always say that, haha!) This is the holiday collection from China Glaze for 2014! It consists of a mix of crèmes, shimmers, glitter polishes and glitter topcoats! There's a little something for everyone. China Glaze is known for their super fine glitters around the holidays, they are so pretty! Thank you so much to China Glaze for sending these over to me for review :)

This is also the first full collection I've swatched with my indoor lights. I've been working on getting decent pictures inside, boy, it is not easy! I prefer outdoor pictures BY FAR but it is so gray and yuck here for days and weeks on hand it's just not possible. I take all my pics with my iPhone 6, which takes really great pics! Some of them seem a little darker here than they do on my phone screen, maybe it's just my computer? I don't know what's going on there. Working on it! :)

I've also included a few comparison pics (bottle shots) for those that seemed familiar as I was going through them! There is no topcoat on these swatches except where noted.

Twinkle Collecion

First is Tip Your Hat. This is 2coats, almost could be a one-coater. Yall, I'm not a red girl, but I love this! I don't know what it is! This is a fav for me.

Tip Your Hat

Quick look at some similar China Glaze reds I have. See how its more of a raspberry red than the other 2? That's probably it.

comparisons

Define Good. 2 coats. Almost could be a one-coater as well. This one walks the line between being a little too frosty/metallic but just barely on the good side. I should have matted this one!

Define Good...

No Peeking. 2 coats. I liked this one a lot more than I thought I would!

No Peeking!

Often times when I get swatching I get a little side tracked. Probably why it takes me so long! But a little variety and options are a good thing, right?? :) I thought No Peeking would look good matte. I used the Zoya matte topcoat (China Glaze has one too, but I've only seen it in a mini)

No Peeking, matte

right of the bat No Peeking reminded me of Zoya Haven from the new Wishes collection but they are actually pretty different.

comparisons

Out Like a Light. This is ONE COAT! A super opaque super dark gray crème. Wow!

Out Like a Light

A look at a few other China Glaze grays I have. This one is way darker than Recycle, I thought they would be closer. It is similar to Concrete Catwalk but way more opaque.

comparisons

Chillin with my Snow-mies (giggle) is a white matte glitter topcoat. I did fish around and placed a few of the larger glitters, and brushed on the smaller ones. As with most glitters it's heavy on the clear base. You can also dump some out on a plate, etc, and use a dotting tool or toothpick to pick them up and place them. I love this!

One dabbed coat over Out Like a Light.

Chillin' With My Snow-Mies

I thought this would look good matte too. Heart eyes! gosh!

matte version

Next is I'd Melt for You. A silver chrome, I used 2 coats. You do have to be aware that with polishes like this you will have brush strokes, but they go a way a little when it dries. You also have to work quick or it will drag. I was prepared for the formula to be a disaster (chromes usually are) and it was pretty good!

This is verrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy similar to OPI Push and Shove. Not quite as mirror-metallic, but if you missed out on that, this is as close as you will get.

I'd Melt For You

Here's a another topper, called De-Light. This is one coat over I'd Melt for You. Screams New Years, right??? The glitter payoff is pretty good in this one, but I'm not sure you'd be able to get it opaque on it's own. There's tiny little micro gold dust glitter, small hexes, and small bar glitters. Bar glitters are quite polarizing, aren't they? I've come a long way on them. These are small enough and shiny enough that they are barely noticeable.

De-Light

Next is December to Remember, a shimmery periwinkle blue with pink/purple shimmer. This one walks that frosty line too! It kind of reminds me of dolphins. Is that weird? haha! It looks like it would be sheer but it's not. 2 coats!

December to Remember

I also thought this one would look cool matte. Thoughts?

matte version

Meet Me Under the Stars. 2 coats. Black and gold microglitters in a black base. Yall......I'm on the fence. It has so much glitter that it does dry almost textured (shown here without topcoat so you can see what I mean) so you would think I would love it but...I don't know. Maybe I would like it better with topcoat. The formula is a little thick for me. It does look like a starry sky, though, right?

Meet Me Under the Stars

Feeling Twinkly, a blue micro glitter. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I will never not love polishes like this! This is super packed so it can be a topper with one coat over another color or you can wear it on its own. This pic is 3 thin coats with topcoat.

Feeling Twinkly

I wanted to show it's opacity in levels.

one coat

2 coats

3 coats, no topcoat

I thought I'd add a thin coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust over top of it, because SPARKLESSSSS

with Fairy Dust

Here 's a quick look at some other similar polished I have. You can see it's pretty similar to Star Light, Star Bright by Salon Perfect (which is almost a dupe for China Glaze Dorothy Who? which I want sooooo bad. Why? Why do I need that?)

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comparisons

This Pine-ing for Glitter, a spruce green microglitter. The glitters are a touch bigger in this one than the blue. I used 3 coats plus topcoat here. The opacity in layers is the same as the blue.

Pine-ning for Glitter

comparisons

Last up is Dancin and Prancin. Yall, I love this. Like, Love. It's so pretty! It's a rose gold rainbow glitter. Is that even a thing? I have nothing else like it. It's so sparkly my camera was like..... yeah nope not gonna focus on that.

This is 3 thin coats plus topcoat. You can also wear this as a topper!

Dancing and Prancing

If a rose gold glitter (OPI Rose of Light) and a rainbow glitter (OPI Chasing Rainbows) got married and had a baby it would be this ahhhhhhhhh

Here's Dancin and Prancin in layers.

1 coat

2 coats

Final Thoughts: This is a huge collection! My pics are Tip Your Hat (red), Out like a Light (gray), Chillin with my Snowmies (glitter topper), and Dancin and Prancin (rose multi glitter)! You know, If I had to choose :)